14 mobiles seized from jail inmates, 13 booked

PK Jaiswar

Amritsar, October 30

Amritsar Central Jail authorities confiscated 14 mobile phones along with 19 SIM cards and a charger from the high security complex here.

The Islamabad police have registered an FIR against 13 prisoners and undertrials in this connection. Shaminderjit Singh, SHO, said that they would be brought after taking police remand for further interrogation.

Among the jail inmates who were nominated in the FIR including a Pakistani cross- border smuggler and a gangster. They were identified as Mohammad Shakeel and Rajnish Kumar, respectively. Shakeel was arrested under the NDPS, Arms and Indian Passport Act.

Among others who were booked included Arun Kumar, alias Arundeep Singh, of Gurdaspur, Akashdeep Singh of Dehriwal village, Abhi Kumar of Ekta Nagar, Sukhdev Singh of Chhota Haripura, Jatinder Singh of Shaheed Udham Singh Nagar, Vijay Kumar of Kartarpur, Rajnish Kumar of Kapurthala, Gurjant Singh of Bachre village in Tarn Taran, Bhupinder Singh, Sultanwind, Charandeep Singh of Azad Nagar, Raja of Jhander, Navtej Singh of Chohla Khrud village in Tarn Taran.

A case under Sections 42, 52-A of the Prison Act was registered against them, said Shaminderjit Singh, SHO. He said the mobiles were seized from their possession at different times. Jail authorities while lodging a complaint against them sought reports after details technical analysis of the mobile phones seized from them.

Earlier, on October 10 the Islamabad police had booked 27 prisoners for possessing prohibited material including 31 mobile phones. Similarly, in September end, the police had booked nine prisoners and seized nine phones from them.

Despite the fact that a harmonious call-blocking system already installed in the jail complex to prevent sneaking of mobile phones besides taking several other steps like deploying companies of paramilitary forces inside the jail premises, there is no let-up in incidents of seizure of cellphones. Various intelligence and security agencies have raised the issue with higher authorities.